Pages

Monday, November 21, 2016

The Fire

So, I had some adventure this weekend. Specifically, I had a small fire in a wall mounted space heater that required me using my fire extinguisher and calling the fire department. No major damage beyond the space heater, but it still smells smokey in here. (BTW, any tips for dealing with that? Let me know in the comments or tweet it at me.)

I will now present to you three scenarios.

1. How I Responded to this Crisis In My Head:

Yep, I pretty much just wanted to run away and let it all burn. Fire is scary!

2. How I Told Others I Responded to this Crisis:

Yep, that's totally the Official Story.

And finally:

3. How I Actually Responded:

Yep. The fire department came a minute later, and made sure it hadn't spread to the wall. Whew.

So, while I had the presence of mind to use the fire extinguisher (and some wet towels, which is what ultimately killed it), I also just kept shouting my street address over and over again on the phone without telling the dispatcher what town I was in. And I put Kitty in her carrier like a grown up, instead of flinging her out the window whilst shouting SAVE YOURSELF. So all in all, I give myself a solid B+.

8 comments:

I give you an A+ for keeping yourself together enough to take care of Kitty and get the fire out. Scary for sure.

I tend to handle emergencies really well then after the fact lose my shit.

As far as the smokey smell. I have heard people say a quick fix is to soak half of a towel in water with a bit of white vinegar in it then hold onto the dry end of the towel and wave it around the air to remove smoke particles. Also, wash down surfaces with the vinegar water.

I, however, always use effusion lamps when any odor is in my house. I realize this doesn't help in the short term as I would guess you don't happen to have one sitting around the house. They are a flameless type of lamp that you put an alcohol based fuel called effusion oil in and a wick thingy puts it out into the air. The alcohol clarifies the air and the scent of the oil remains. (some people just use the unscented version)

I actually have an extra one around here if you are interested in it for future use. I might warn you that it was a freeby from a company that I purchase other things from and it is ugly as hell. Looks like a genie's lamp but I used it once and it works fine. I would send it your way gratis if you are interested. This time of year there are tons of holiday scented oils you can use in them that make the house smell nice. Unlike a candle they never need babysitting. No fire involved. Email me at artofconflicted@aol.com if you are interested but if not...I won't take it personally.

You saved Kitty. That's all that matters. I would totally scream FUCK and run in circles if I had a fire in my house. I am not as grownup as you are, even though I'm a hell of a lot older. My husband who is not my husband now once set our dining room table on fire right before we had a party. We opened the window to get rid of the smoke. No one at the party ever knew about the fire.

"I don't know my address, tell my my address," is hilarious. As someone who transcends "fight or flight" to include "paralyzed monkey clap," I applaud your jumping into action. Not sure I could have done that. Probably would have just confusedly burned to death like a Tibetan Monk who was just really confused rather than making a political statement.For the smell, the best I can recommend is vanilla scented candles, plants to absorb the stank, and give your cat something that makes Kitty gassy.

This is both hilarious and awesome. I love it, especially the not knowing your address part. I'm calm to a fault, to the point that in that situation I'd probably just be more annoyed with the inconvenience of the fire than scared of anything bad happening. This is what it's like to be dead inside, I think.

You saved Kitty, you extinguished the fire .. which may have spread throughout the entire neighbourhood if you hadn't acted, can you imagine? A+ definitely. Maybe an heroic story and a pic in your local newspaper? If you can recall which town you live in.